Consultation outcome

Universal Credit statistics: release strategy (March 2013 to December 2017)

Updated 11 January 2018

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

Universal Credit is a new single payment for people who are looking for work or on a low income.

In April 2013, DWP, with our delivery partners in HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and local authorities, introduced Universal Credit for claimants in certain areas of north-west England. We are introducing Universal Credit in a managed way, progressively rolling it out nationally from October 2013.

Legacy benefits will begin to close to new claimants during 2016. Following this, remaining legacy claim numbers will progressively fall, and we will migrate the remaining claims to Universal Credit. We expect the bulk of this to be complete by 2021.

Read our Universal Credit policy information

1. Statistics release strategy

This strategy updates the version we published in May 2016.

We’ll only release statistics and management information on Universal Credit that are part of our statistics release strategy. This is to ensure that statistics are published in a clear and controlled way.

We’ve designated Universal Credit statistics as experimental official statistics, following guidelines set out by the UK Statistics Authority.

1.1 Frequency and formats

Universal Credit official statistics are released each month:

• in a written report, containing the main headline statistics and charts
• in a set of spreadsheet tables containing statistics by broad geography
• using Stat-Xplore, which allows users to obtain their own bespoke detailed statistics
• in an interactive map

We publish them on the same day as the wider Labour Market Statistics, produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

1.2 Data

The range of information released has increased since December 2013. This has followed quality assurance of data held within the systems which administer Universal Credit.

Since December 2015, the Universal Credit official statistics consist of 3 main measures:

• the number of initial claims made to Universal Credit
• the number of people actually starting Universal Credit
• the number of people on Universal Credit on the second Thursday of each month (this ‘count date’ matching the count date used by the ONS for the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance).

Universal Credit official statistics currently cover the Universal Credit system first introduced in Ashton-under-Lyne in April 2013. They include the national expansion of Universal Credit which started in February 2015.

A limited test of the full service for Universal Credit was launched in Sutton, South London, on 26 November 2014, and expanded to other parts of London, Scotland and East Anglia between November 2014 and April 2016. From May 2016 Universal Credit full service began its roll out to all other Jobcentre Plus offices and expanded across the country to include all claimant types. Figures on full service claimants were incorporated into the measures in the November 2016 publication.

1.3 Data breakdowns

Some or all of the 3 Universal Credit official statistics measures are broken down by:

• geography:
  • postcode area and district
  • Jobcentre Plus office, district and group
  • Parliamentary constituency
  • country
  • region
  • local authority
  • census output area
• gender
• age (both single year of age and age bands)
• whether in employment or not in employment
• duration on Universal Credit
• the conditionality regime a claimant is on at the count date – see background information and methodology for more information

We anticipate that additional breakdowns will be included in the Universal Credit official statistics as quality assurance of data from the Universal Credit systems progresses.

It’s not possible to provide a precise timescale or definitive list of additional breakdowns at this stage, but they may include:

• the number of households claiming Universal Credit, including:
  • the ‘family type’ of the household, for example, ‘single’ or ‘couple’
  • the number of households receiving specific Universal Credit allowances, for example, housing element, child element or limited capability for work element
  • the average monthly Universal Credit award for households
  • the number of households whose award is affected by a deduction, for example, sanction deduction or arrears payment

Send us your feedback on the types of data breakdowns you’d like to see in Universal Credit official statistics to [email protected]

2. Universal Credit and the ONS claimant count

Universal Credit affects the ONS claimant count. The effects are set out in Jobseeker’s Allowance, Universal Credit and the Claimant Count: changes to the measurement of the Claimant Count published by ONS.

Read more about claimant count statistics.